Urban morphology transformations in Gempol: how the F&B industry induced formal, spatial, and usage pattern changes in Urban Residential Areas

Abstract

Bandung has always been a prime tourist destination in West Java and Indonesia. The growth of the F&B industry could be clearly seen by the conversion of residential buildings into commercial venues throughout Bandung for all kinds of market segments. The municipality of Bandung encouraged the practice of conversing previously residential areas into commercial areas in the city center by creating zoning laws for commercial functions to be built upon the existing urban residential areas. Gempol is one of the historic urban residential blocks experiencing sporadeous land-use changes due to the growth of the F&B industry. Developed under colonial rule in the 1920s, Gempol was a densely populated block designed for the lower-middle class with the concept of urban pocket, with smaller houses inside the block surrounded by larger villas on the main streets. This non-uniform changes in land use inevitably brings tension between owners of neighboring parcels, due to the different needs and interests of commercial and residential areas. From parking and noise disturbance to complains about the visual cohesiveness of the block, it is clear that this fragmented zones is a problem of urban design. The objectives of this research are to identify the physical and non-physical effects of land use changes in Gempol as an urban residential area and to identify the focus of development of Gempol in the present era. The type of methodology chosen for this specific research is a descriptive research, as the research intends to answer questions of how land-use changes impact the residential community in which it is located. It intends to examine the correlation between building functions and the urban environment through observation. Hence, a reconstruction of the transformations in different eras in Gempol is required to be able to create a valid comparison. 3 layers of information were used to recreate what the environment might have looked like before homes started to be converted to commercial spaces: a CAD Base-map of Bandung, the Prospectus voor de Uitgifte van Gronden, and Satellite View from Maxar Technologies The CAD base map and the Prospectus was used to identify the figure-ground plan of the building, and satellite imagery was used to identify the roof forms accurately. For current situation, the Prospectus is replaced by a plot map from the BPN. Both the on-field findings on 2023 and the findings from literature of similar transformation capture on the 1990s and the early 2000s show a difference of the transformation process taking place in Gempol. The focus of development in 1990 was densification, development on 2004 focused on consolidation, but developments on 2023 focused on commercialization and maximization of land value – which leads to the fragmentation of urban elements and architectural quality.